"We’ve designed SimCity BuildIt to keep players engaged for years to come,” Willig said. “We see this iteration of SimCity evolving more similarly to games like World of Warcraft, Hay Day, and The Sims FreePlay, where new content, features and systems are introduced on a regular basis to keep players engaged, retained, and rewarded in an ever-expanding and evolving game for a very long period of time. The best mobile games can have a [3 year-plus] life cycle, so we’re just getting started with SimCityBuildIt.”
According to App Annie statistics SimCity BuildIt has been consistently in the top 10 iOS sim and strategy games in the US while ranking in the top 100 for US games and the top 150 worldwide making it a strong player in the apps market.
In the interview Willig goes into detail about the average user experience with the game saying that most players spend around 40 minutes playing the game each day while checking in 5 or 6 times daily for a few minutes each play.
Willig went on to comment that, “For SimCity BuildIt, our players spend on average 6-10 minutes per session, five-six times every day. While averages can sometimes be misleading, you can see a big difference: snack-size play throughout the day on mobile, versus ‘strap in’ deeper sessions on PC."
“One thing that is similar is that engaged players play a lot, regardless of platform. Our most committed BuildIt players are probably spending 13-16 hours per week playing the game — this is a rough estimate, not a hard stat! — which is pretty impressive.”
40 million downloads is not that surprising given the popularity of the franchise and the ubiquity of iOS and Android mobile phone platforms that now reach to billions worldwide but it is interesting that the mobile game has become more popular than its PC predecessors!
Hat tip to Venture Beat for their in-depth interview with Willig - http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/06/simcity-buildit-has-become-the-most-played-simcity-ever/view-all/